Japan and New Zealand, 150 Years ed Roger Peren New Zealand Centre for Japanese Studies, Massey University, in association with the Historical Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, [not for sale], ISBN 0958350574 In 1878, Asajiro Noda, the eight-year-old son…
The High Jump: A New Zealand Childhood Elizabeth Knox Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864733372 Anyone who grew up in New Zealand in the 1960s and ’70s can bask in the nostalgia of Elizabeth Knox’s trilogy The High Jump…
laminations Murray Edmond Auckland University Press, $19.95, ISBN 1869402227 In the poem “Can that Mango” from Murray Edmond’s latest book, the following lines are spoken (or so a note informs us) by one of two angels who are discussing a…
The Curative Charlotte Randall Penguin, $24.95, ISBN 0140297537 This is an amazing and amazingly good novel. The second novel is supposed to be the hardest but any reader coming to this one “blind” would judge it to be the work…
The Cassino Legacy Michael Wall Penguin, $19.95, ISBN 0140288368 Cardinal Sins Michael Wall HarperCollins, $19.95, ISBN 1869503619 Michael Wall wants to see his name on the airport bookshelves of the world. He is making serious and professional efforts to write,…